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Game #1: Blaster Master 2 – Sega Genesis

Blaster Master was a classic on the NES.  It was a bit like Metroid in a tank.  Exploration, power-ups, amazing graphics, and catchy songs.

Its sequel, Blaster Master 2 for the Genesis is like Metroid with a tank and without any of the fun or awesomeness.  Honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to play it long enough to really understand what it is.  It appears to be far more linear than its predecessor.  It also stole Rygar’s sunset.

I couldn’t get the hang of the controls, and there were far too many things that wanted to shoot me or jump on me or fall on my head.  There’s also inclines, which change your firing angle when you drive on them, making it very difficult to shoot what you want to shoot.

You can get out and walk around, just like in the original, however, in this one, some of the caves you end up in have large-sized side-scrolling regions.  In these regions, your character Jason handles like a lobotomized monkey.  You can kneel or shoot straight down, but you never do the one you want to do.  Not that it matters.  Shooting down shoots your feet, and kneeling shoots over the top of ground dwelling creatures.  You can’t shoot at an angle, and you can’t shoot down while jumping.  That means that you can’t actually shoot the space slug you meet up with early on until it stands up.  And did I mention that once you’re shooting, if you stop moving, you can’t start moving until you stop shooting?  That part is especially awesome in an action game where you have to both shoot and get out of the way…

Collision detection is awful, as well.  Many times, I stood and fired at an enemy, then got hurt several seconds later, even though neither me nor the enemy had moved a pixel.

There’s a pause screen that I’m sure would be useful, if I understood it at all.  Unfortunately, it’s not mentioned in the manual.

That’s an easy choice to make.

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